Winsor Review Part 2
Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions: Part 2 Report
Policing & Security
Second part of an independent review of police officer and staff pay and conditions, commissioned by the Home Secretary. Published July 2012 with 121 recommendations on pay scales, progression, direct entry and fitness requirements.
121recommendations
121Not Yet Responded
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
The terms and conditions of police officers and staff should remain separate for the foreseeable future.
Recommendation 10
Paragraph 1 of Determination Annex C, made under Regulation 12 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to allow those on an accelerated promotion
Recommendation 100
A Specialist Skills Threshold should be introduced at the final pay point of police staff pay scales, and should operate in the same way as for police officers. It should be for police forces to determine which of their police staff roles are eligible for the Specialist Skills Threshold, using implementation of the Policing Professional Framework and Authorised Professional Practice as the basis for establishing which roles require specialist skills.
Recommendation 101
A Public Order Allowance (POA) should be established when the EPAA is removed. It should be paid to those officers who have attainted Level 1 or 2 public order accreditation and who have been deployed to at least six public order operations during a 12-month period in which the ‘Gold, Silver, Bronze’ Command Structure was activated. The POA should be £600 per annum.
Recommendation 102
The continued eligibility of the qualifying group of public order officers to receive the Public Order Allowance should be considered every five years by the new police pay review body. The police pay review body should consider whether, and by how much, it should be uprated each year.
Recommendation 103
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to provide the Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police with the authority to determine an appropriate level of buy-out of the casual overtime of specialist protection officers.
Recommendation 104
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police should determine an appropriate buy-out of the casual overtime of specialist protection officers which results in a greater harmonisation of the pay of specialist and royalty protection officers, and which takes appropriate account of the unique requirements of specialist protection officers.
Recommendation 105
In 2017, the recommended police officer pay review body should reconsider the buy-out of sergeants’ casual overtime.
Recommendation 106
Annual Data Returns from forces should include separate breakdowns of overtime hours worked, and total overtime spend for constables and sergeants.
Recommendation 107
The Police Staff Council’s Handbook, Section 1, paragraph 6.1.2 should be amended to provide for the payment of additional hours of Sunday working at the rate of plain time. This should be agreed with the Police Staff Council and incorporated into contracts of employment. In the case of police forces outside the PSC arrangements, these changes should be agreed in the usual manner with the relevant unions.
Recommendation 108
For working public holidays, police staff should receive double time for 25 December and seven other days chosen by the individual before 31 January for the next financial year. Managers should have the right to refuse requests if a date proves too popular and force resilience becomes questionable. Cancellation with fewer than 15 days’ notice should require the authorisation of an Assistant Chief Constable.
Recommendation 109
Changes to police staff overtime payments should take effect from April 2016, in conjunction with recommendations 107 and 108 relating to the payment of police staff unsocial hours. The Police Staff Council and other negotiating forums should spend the period before implementation determining how to mitigate any undue detrimental effects that changes to overtime payments may have on some police staff.
Recommendation 11
Regulation 7(2) of the Police (Promotion) Regulations 1996 should be amended to provide that officers on an accelerated promotion scheme, recognised by the Home Secretary, should be promoted from constable to sergeant if they have met the criteria to join a recognised accelerated promotion scheme course, have completed one year’s service and have passed a one year probation period, subject to the discretion of their Chief Constable. Officers promoted in such a manner should be on probation until they have completed two years’ service at that rank or a recognised accelerated promotion scheme course, whichever is later.
Recommendation 110
The definition of unsocial hours for police officers and staff should be harmonised. For both officers and staff, it should be defined as work which takes place between the hours of 8:00pm and 6:00am, with all days of the week being of equal weight.
Recommendation 111
By April 2016, Section 1, Subsection 8 of the Police Staff Council Handbook should be replaced with a provision for the payment of police staff at the rate of 100% uplift in pay (double time) for each unsocial hour worked. The PSC should conduct further research to ensure this recommendation is affordable.
Recommendation 112
A national on-call allowance for the Federated ranks should be introduced from April 2013. The amount of the allowance should be £15 for each daily occasion of on-call after the officer in question has undertaken 12 on-call sessions in the year beginning on 1 April.
Recommendation 113
The national on-call allowance should be reviewed by the new police pay review body in its first triennial review when better management data are available.
Recommendation 114
Forces should compile clear management data on the voluntary deployment of officers on-call.
Recommendation 115
The Police Negotiating Board should be abolished and replaced by an independent police officer pay review body by late 2014.
Recommendation 116
The membership and terms of reference for the new police pay review body should be as specified in Chapter 10 of this report.
Recommendation 117
Once the police pay review body has been established, police pensions should be handled by the Police Advisory Boards of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Recommendation 118
The Senior Salaries Review Body should take responsibility for setting the pay of Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and Assistant Chief Constables by 2014.
Recommendation 119
The Police Staff Council should receive approximately £50,000 per annum from police forces to fund regular data surveys of the remuneration and conditions of police staff.
Recommendation 12
Regulation 7(4) of the Police (Promotion) Regulations 1996 should be amended to provide that officers on an accelerated promotion scheme recognised by the Home Secretary should be automatically promoted from sergeant to inspector upon passing a recognised accelerated promotion scheme course.
Recommendation 120
All police forces should negotiate a strike resolution procedure for police staff which is similar to that used by Surrey Police.
Recommendation 121
The chair of the PABEW should ensure issues for its consideration are discussed with greater despatch and efficiency, and that as far as reasonably practicable they are disposed of within six months of being raised.
Recommendation 13
The Police Professional Body should develop a distance-learning version of the policing technical certificate designed as a pre-entry requirement for the Direct Entry (Inspector) scheme and Direct Entry (Superintendent) scheme, or work with an appropriate education provider to do so.
Recommendation 14
The Police Professional Body should lengthen the current ‘Foundation for Senior Leaders’ course so that those taking it learn about leadership, management and operational skills in greater depth. The course should last six weeks instead of three weeks.
Recommendation 15
Officers wishing to become eligible for promotion to superintendent should first be required successfully to complete an enhanced ‘Foundation for Senior Leaders Course’.
Recommendation 16
Provision should be made in police regulations to enable police officers to be seconded to organisations outside policing for a period not exceeding five years.
Recommendation 17
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to provide for the return to the police service of former non-probationary officers at the rank they last held. There should be no right of return and there must be a suitable vacancy. Return after more than five years should not be allowed other than in exceptional circumstances.
Recommendation 18
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to provide that returning officers should be subject to a probationary period of six months.
Recommendation 19
A national scheme for recruitment directly to the rank of superintendent should be established and brought into operation from September 2013. Participation in the scheme should be at the discretion of the chief officer. The scheme should last 15 months. Participants on the scheme should be persons of exceptional achievement and ability who have been assessed as having the potential to be senior police officers. They should be paid as superintendents on the lowest pay point whilst on the course. The knowledge, skill and experience required for them to operate competently and confidently as full superintendents should be delivered through a mixture of in-force training and an 18-week course of instruction at the police college.
Recommendation 2
The new police pay review body (see Chapter 10) should undertake a periodic review of the development of the police workforce, and its increasing professionalisation and specialisation, and make an assessment and recommendation to the Home Secretary as to the feasibility of attaining a greater degree of harmonisation of the terms and conditions of police officers and those of police staff. Where it is feasible, it should be done. The period in question should be five years.
Recommendation 20
The scheme should be operated by the Police Professional Body, which should also meet the costs of the scheme, other than the support provided to scheme members by forces. It should be the decision of each Chief Constable whether or not his force will participate in the scheme. There should be an objective (but not a firm target) of there being 20% of superintendents recruited as direct entrants within ten years of the first superintendents completing the scheme in November 2015.
Recommendation 21
Determination Annex C of Regulation 12 of the Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to provide that those entering above the rank of constable should serve a probationary period in accordance with the applicable direct entry scheme.
Recommendation 22
The direct entry scheme for superintendents should be reviewed after a period of five years.
Recommendation 23
From September 2013, the eligible experience for a Chief Constable set out in Determination Annex B, made under Regulation 11 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to include service in a chief officer equivalent role overseas in a common law jurisdiction which practises policing by consent.
Recommendation 24
The eligible experience for a Chief Constable set out in Schedule 8, Part 1, paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 should be amended to include service in a chief officer equivalent role overseas in a common law jurisdiction which practises policing by consent.
Recommendation 25
The Police Professional Body should develop a flexible, tailored course of instruction for Chief Constables appointed from overseas.
Recommendation 26
Determination Annex B, made under Regulation 11 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to remove the requirement as to the length or place of service required to become a Chief Constable in the case only of officers to be appointed as Chief Constables from police forces outside the United Kingdom.
Recommendation 27
The sole criterion for the recruitment, advancement and promotion of police officers should be merit.
Recommendation 28
All police forces should establish efficient methods for the active and constructive development of the careers of officers, irrespective of rank. The best candidates should be sought out and their potential developed and realised.
Recommendation 29
Each force should establish a succession planning system which identifies projected vacancies and the people most likely to be best fitted to fill them, bearing in mind the long-term as well as the short-term needs of the individual, the force and the police service as a whole.
Recommendation 3
From April 2013, an additional qualification should be added to the list required for appointment to a police force in Regulation 10 of the Police Regulations 2003. Candidates eligible for appointment to a police force should have either a Level 3 qualification, or a police qualification which is recognised by the sector skills council, Skills for Justice, or service as a special constable or service as a PCSO (or another staff role which the chief officer is satisfied provides appropriate experience). The chief officer should have a discretion in relation to which of these criteria should apply to applicants for entry to his force.
Recommendation 30
Chief Constables should make greater use of ‘rank skipping’, so that an officer is not required to serve at every rank in his career if he is considered ready for promotion to a rank higher than the next.
Recommendation 31
For each rank above constable, a core set of leadership, management and financing skills should be established by the new Police Professional Body. An officer should be trained and assessed in these before he is promoted.
Recommendation 32
The responsibilities of the Police Promotions Examination Board for setting promotions standards should be subsumed into the Police Advisory Board of England and Wales so that recommendations on the standards required for entry and promotion are considered by the same body. When this has been done, the PPEB should be abolished.
Recommendation 33
A fitness test should be introduced in September 2013 for all police officers and staff required to undertake personal safety training. Participants should be required to attain level 5:4 on a 15-metre shuttle run. From September 2014, those who fail the test three times should be subject to the appropriate disciplinary procedures.
Recommendation 34
From September 2018, an annual physical fitness test should be introduced for all police officers in England and Wales, equivalent to the test used for recruits in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Recommendation 35
From September 2018, the national police recruitment test should be replaced by the more demanding physical assessment test used in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Recommendation 36
From September 2018, probationers should have to prove their fitness against the more demanding physical assessment test of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Recommendation 37
From September 2018, national fitness tests for specialist police officer roles should be introduced, designed most closely to test the physical capability of officers to discharge the responsibilities of the specialist police officers in the field.
Recommendation 38
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to specify the procedure for determining the circumstances in which an officer may be placed on restricted duty, the arrangements which a Chief Constable may make for officers on restricted duty, and the adjustments to the pay of such officers.
Recommendation 39
From September 2014, officers on restricted duty should have their deployability and capability to exercise police powers assessed one year after being placed on restricted duty. Officers who are not deployable and are not capable of work which requires the office of constable should sustain a reduction in pay equal to the value of the deployability element of the X-factor, namely the lower of eight per cent and £2,922 per annum. After a further year, appropriate proceedings should be initiated to dismiss or retire these officers from the police service on the grounds of incapability or poor attendance. Officers who are permanently disabled from working as police officers should be ill-health retired. Those who are not permanently disabled should be given the opportunity to resign as police officers and immediately take up a police staff job on police staff terms and conditions, if one is available.
Recommendation 4
Forces should collaborate on the development of policing qualifications.
Recommendation 40
A former officer who resigns to take a police staff job or who is dismissed on the grounds of incapability or poor attendance following the restricted duty process, should be entitled to be considered for re-appointment if, following an assessment by an approved medical practitioner, the condition which previously compromised his capability is judged to have permanently changed so as to restore his ability to work as a police officer. Without the former officer having to go through the full selection process, the force should be required actively to consider whether a suitable vacancy at the former officer’s rank exists or is likely to exist in the coming year. The force should have this duty for a period of five years after the officer has left.
Recommendation 41
A returning officer should have an unblemished disciplinary record and be able to pass the fitness test. Forces should also assess carefully a record of poor attendance. Such former officers should be on probation for six months.
Recommendation 42
The Police Act 1996 should be amended to give the Police Appeals Tribunal the same power as an employment tribunal in respect of the remedies it may order when it has found in favour of a claimant police officer.
Recommendation 43
The normal pension age for police officers should be set at 60 in line with the implemented recommendations made by Lord Hutton of Furness.
Recommendation 44
A future police pension scheme should retain the existing test which must be fulfilled for an officer to be considered for an ill-health retirement pension, that is that the officer should be permanently disabled for the ordinary duties of a police officer.
Recommendation 45
A future police pension scheme should determine the size of a police officer’s pension, when he is retiring on the grounds of ill-health, by considering both his length of service and his future capacity for regular employment.
Recommendation 46
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to create a system of compulsory severance for police officers with less than full pensionable service from April 2013.
Recommendation 47
The Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to provide for the payment of financial compensation to police officers with less than full pensionable service who leave the police service by reason of compulsory severance. Forces should be empowered to offer financial compensation on the same terms as are available under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme 2010.
Recommendation 48
Officers who have been subject to compulsory severance should have access to employment tribunals if they wish to allege that their severance has been unfair.
Recommendation 49
HMIC, in consultation with police forces, the Police Professional Body and the Home Office, should establish a national template for a force management statement which should be published by each police force with its annual report. The force management statement should contain consistently presented, reliable data about the projected demands on the force in the short, medium and long terms, the force’s plans for meeting those demands, including its financial plans, and the steps it intends to take to improve the efficiency and economy with which it will maintain and develop its workforce and other assets, and discharge its obligations to the public. Each force management statement should also contain a report, with reasons, on the force’s performance in the last year against the projections made for that year in the last force management statement. Exclusions should be permitted on security grounds.
Recommendation 5
The passmark for the 2013 SEARCH assessment process should be raised to at least 70%. This should be reviewed after five years to ensure that the academic threshold is sufficiently rigorous.
Recommendation 50
Compensation payments for Chief Constables and Deputy Chief Constables whose fixed term appointments are not renewed should be fair and more generous than the compensation available to officers who leave the police service by reason of compulsory severance, taking into account any pension entitlements. The current scheme should therefore remain.
Recommendation 51
Hearings under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008, which have the power to dismiss an officer, should also have the power to remove some or all of the compensation payment for the contract of appointment to which the chief officer is currently subject if there has been a violation of the mandatory standards of professional conduct under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008.
Recommendation 52
Fixed term appointments for Chief Constables and Deputy Chief Constables should remain in place.
Recommendation 53
The current maximum basic pay for constables should remain at £36,519.
Recommendation 54
A new, shorter pay scale for constables should be introduced for new entrants from April 2013 as outlined in Table 7.12 of this report. It should have a lower starting salary than the current scale, but should allow constables to move to the maximum more quickly.
Recommendation 55
Pay points 6, 7, and 9 should be removed from the existing constables’ pay scale in April 2014, 2015, and 2016 respectively. This will allow constables to move to the maximum more quickly and ensure that the current and new pay scales merge in 2016.
Recommendation 56
Pay point 0 of the current sergeants’ pay scale should be removed from April 2014 to ensure that sergeants are always paid more than constables, consistent with the greater responsibilities of the job.
Recommendation 57
The London lead for the inspecting ranks in the London forces should be maintained in the short-term. The police pay review body should consider the London lead in its first review. Unless the pay review body is satisfied that the inspecting ranks in London do indeed have greater responsibilities and workloads than their counterparts elsewhere, the London lead should be abolished.
Recommendation 58
The police pay review body should, in its first triennial review, consider further increasing the gap between the constable and sergeant pay scales, and between the inspector and chief inspector pay scales, to ensure that good candidates are incentivised to seek promotion.
Recommendation 59
The national spend on bonuses and double increments for superintendents should be reinvested into a revised three-point pay scale for superintendents, with a starting salary of £60,094 and a maximum of £72,585 from April 2014.
Recommendation 6
The basic training of police officers should be improved so as more fully to cover the essential features of the place of the police in the criminal justice system.
Recommendation 60
The post-related allowance for chief superintendents should be abolished. The cost of the post-related allowance, bonus payments and double increments, should be reinvested into a revised basic pay scale for chief superintendents with a starting salary of £77,215 and a maximum of £81,457 from April 2014.
Recommendation 61
Assistant Chief Constables should remain on a single national pay scale.
Recommendation 62
The pay scale for Assistant Chief Constables should be replaced with a three-point pay scale. It should start at £93,753 have a second pay point at £99,798 and a maximum of £105,849. Existing pay points 1, 3 and 5 should be removed in April 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Recommendation 63
The pay of Deputy Chief Constables should remain unchanged in the short-term.
Recommendation 64
Police and crime commissioners should have the power to set the Chief Constable’s basic pay at any level which is up to ten per cent above or below the national rate for a Chief Constable in the force in question.
Recommendation 65
Each police and crime commissioner should publish in his annual report the rate of basic pay agreed with the Chief Constable, and the reasons why it was set at that level, together with the details and value of all benefits received by chief officers.
Recommendation 66
All police forces should review, and if necessary amend, their pay grading structures to ensure that they are fully compliant with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.
Recommendation 67
Police forces should review pay grading structures at the earliest opportunity, and in any case not later than April 2013. Where they establish that pay scales are excessively long, they should be shortened as fairly and quickly as possible, consistently with the need for efficiency and economy.
Recommendation 68
Police staff pay grading should continue to be undertaken by individual police forces.
Recommendation 69
Police forces should review and, if necessary, amend their pay grading systems in relation to local pay rates to ensure that they are paying no more than is required to recruit and retain individuals of the requisite quality. Any necessary adjustments to grading systems should be made with sensitivity to the personal financial circumstances of the police staff affected, who should be provided with an appropriate degree of pay protection as any necessary changes are brought into effect over time.
Recommendation 7
The police service should establish a programme of intensive promotion of itself, and all the advantages it has to offer, to young people in schools and universities throughout the country.
Recommendation 70
Forces should undertake this review as part of their normal salary determination processes. The review should begin not later than April 2013.
Recommendation 71
The deployment component of the police officer X-factor should be established to be 8% of basic pay for constables. For other ranks, it should be expressed in cash terms, benchmarked at 8% of the maximum of constables’ basic pay.
Recommendation 72
The value of the deployment component of the X-factor should be reviewed every five years. The new police pay review body, recommended in Chapter 10, should conduct the review.
Recommendation 73
The new police pay review body should review the level and scope of regional allowances for police officers. The national rate of basic pay should only be raised if justified by recruitment and retention problems in force areas with the least competitive labour markets. Local recruitment and retention problems should be solved through an enhanced system of regional allowances. The pay review body should begin this work in its first review.
Recommendation 74
Chief Constables should be given discretion to pay regional allowances up to the current maximum level, as set out in Determination Annex U made under Regulation 34 of the Police Regulations 2003, and the discretion to apply eligibility criteria based on location and performance.
Recommendation 75
Forces that recruit constables in the first five years of their service should pay compensation to the force from which they have recruited the constable, to ensure that training costs are fairly shared amongst all forces.
Recommendation 76
The new police pay review body should consider the case for the extension of a system to reimburse the training costs of specialist police officer roles, such as firearms, in its first triennial review.
Recommendation 77
Police staff pay grading should continue to be determined at force level.
Recommendation 78
Police forces should examine how their police staff salaries relate to the local labour market, and adjust them if they are found to be paying rates that are above or below the level necessary to recruit and retain individuals of the right calibre.
Recommendation 79
The Police Professional Body should amend the current NPIA PDR model to make it fit for use as the basis of contribution-related pay in the police service. This will involve: (a) reducing the number of box markings to three and giving clear definitions of each; (b) taking account of continuous professional development in the final box-marking; (c) including a record of attendance in the PDR; (d) taking account of whether the officer has passed the new fitness test; (e) developing guidance for the use of moderation panels to ensure force-level consistency, and forced distribution to identify the least effective 10% of officers and staff.
Recommendation 8
From August 2013, a national Direct Entry (Inspector) scheme should be established with the objective of improving police leadership and offering rapid training and promotion to individuals of high ability and capacity. It should be run by the Police Professional Body with the co-operation of police forces. The intake should be set annually, with at least 80 participants in each intake. Around half of the scheme members should be external graduates and half in-service officers and police staff members. The scheme should be rigorous and highly selective.
Recommendation 80
The amended NPIA PDR template, and its accompanying guidance, should be established as the minimum standard for appraisal in the police service. Forces should be at liberty to develop and improve the PDR system thus established, but they should not disturb or eliminate its essential features. Forces should abide by its guidance, particularly in relation to (a) minimising bureaucracy; and (b) working on the assumption of competence.
Recommendation 81
The amended NPIA PDR should be used in all forces in England and Wales beginning in 2014/15. Training should be given in advance to all line managers to ensure that they can use the PDR efficiently and effectively, so as to inspire confidence in the system and its operation.
Recommendation 82
Forced distribution should be used to identify the least effective 10% of officers and staff. The forced distribution should be decided upon in moderation panels. Line managers of officers and staff who are the least effective 10% of performers must consider the use of unsatisfactory performance procedures for officers and the equivalent procedures for police staff. A written note must be made explaining what action was taken, and why, in the case of each individual.
Recommendation 83
Competence Related Threshold Payments should be abolished by April 2013 at the latest, and all accrued CRTP payments up to that date should be made on a pro- rated basis.
Recommendation 84
Pay progression for officers in the Federated ranks should be subject to a satisfactory box marking in the annual appraisal. Those officers who receive a box marking of ‘satisfactory contribution’ or above should advance by one pay increment; those who receive an ‘unsatisfactory contribution’ box marking should remain on the same pay point for a further year. This should be introduced for sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors in 2014/15 and for constables in 2015/16.
Recommendation 85
ACPO, and the Police Federation and police staff trade unions, along with other interested parties, should establish a series of new national policing awards for police officers and staff.
Recommendation 86
Pay progression for officers in the superintending and ACC ranks should be subject to at least a satisfactory box marking in the annual appraisal. Those officers whose contribution is marked as satisfactory or above should advance by one pay increment; those who receive an ‘unsatisfactory contribution’ box marking should remain on the same pay point for a further year.
Recommendation 87
Double increment pay progression should be abolished in April 2013.
Recommendation 88
Individual bonus schemes for officers in the superintending, ACC and DCC ranks should be abolished in April 2013.
Recommendation 89
The bonus scheme for Chief Constables should be abolished with effect from April 2013.
Recommendation 9
The Direct Entry (Inspector) scheme should last three years for external candidates and two years for internal candidates. Successful candidates should attain the rank of inspector at the end of the scheme. In the first year, external candidates should gain policing experience, and by the end of that year pass an intensive version of the diploma in policing. At the end of this year, participants who have met the requisite standard of achievement should be promoted to sergeant and begin a two-year course where they will be joined by in-service candidates who have also been promoted to sergeant. This course should have a residential element based at the national police college, and time spent in force. The course should focus on leadership, operational policing and management skills. Assessment should be rigorous and continuous. There should be two examinations a year which must be passed. Successful participants should be promoted to inspector on completion of the course.
Recommendation 90
Contribution-related pay progression should be extended so as to apply to all police staff.
Recommendation 91
Performance-related bonus schemes for police staff, of all grades, should be abolished with effect from April 2013.
Recommendation 92
Chief officer bonuses which are awarded to police officers for performing outstandingly demanding, unpleasant, or important work should be maintained, and police staff in all forces should be eligible to receive these payments on the same terms as officers.
Recommendation 93
The present implementation of the Policing Professional Framework (PPF) for police staff roles should continue.
Recommendation 94
An interim Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance (EPAA) should be introduced from April 2013. It should reward qualifying officers for the skills they use in the four stated priority functions: neighbourhood policing; public order; investigation; and firearms. The EPAA should be £600 per annum, and should be paid monthly. It should be removed when an officer leaves the qualifying role. The EPAA should be abolished when the Specialist Skills Threshold is introduced.
Recommendation 95
A Foundation Skills Threshold should be introduced at the fourth point of the constables’ pay scale by 2016 at the latest. It should test the officer’s knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals and essential details of the criminal law, including the rules of evidence and procedure, the constitutional position of the police, including their accountability, and the rights of witnesses, victims and suspects, and other citizens. The Police Professional Body should be remitted to devise the test.
Recommendation 96
Every constable should attempt the Foundation Skills Threshold, and only those who pass the test should be allowed to move up the pay scale. Constables should be re-tested every five years. Repeated failures to pass the test should lead to the constable being entered into the force’s unsatisfactory performance procedures.
Recommendation 97
A Specialist Skills Threshold should be introduced at the final pay point of all police officer pay scales up to and including chief superintendent, by 2016 at the latest. It should consist of a rigorous test of the specialist knowledge and skills required in each role and rank. The Police Professional Body should be remitted to devise the test.
Recommendation 98
Officers who pass the Specialist Skills Threshold test should move up to the pay maximum for their rank, and receive an accredited qualification. The test should be re-taken every three years. Failure to pass the re-test should result in the officer reverting to the highest non-threshold pay point.
Recommendation 99
The Specialist Skills Threshold should apply only to those roles that require the warranted powers or expertise of a police officer. A suggested list for the Federated ranks is provided in Table 9.6. The Police Professional Body should be remitted to determine which roles are eligible for the Specialist Skills Threshold. When established, the prescribed skill areas should be determined by the police pay review body with the advice of the Police Professional Body, which should accredit them and set the standards to be attained.